The present invention relates to a new method for palletizing book, magazine, segnature parcels and to the related apparatus, with the feature that the individual parcels are advanced between and integrally with first means consisting of a lower conveyor and second means consisting of an upper accompanying device, said device being superposed to the first means, for lengths that are a function of the parcel length and of the position each parcel is to be arranged in relative to the following one.
Precisely, the length the first parcel is to be advanced is equal to the length thereof plus the distance the second parcel is desired to be separated from the first one, and so on for the following parcels with the desired separations between successive parcels.
A further feature that is achieved is the height adjustment of said upper accompanying device as a function of the height of the parcel rows that progressively form.
Apparatuses for forming parcel rows with different separations of the parcels from one another are known, in which said parcel rows, once they have been formed, are transferred to the palletizing area.
Such known apparatuses are rather complicated and do not provide the certainty that precise separations of the parcels from one another are obtained and, especially in the case of parcels composed of loose, i.e. not tied to one another, books or segnatures, there is the hazard that the so formed stacks discompose or fall a part while the row of parcels to be palletized is being prepared.
One of these known apparatuses is described for example in European Patent No. 0562220.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus in which said shortcomings do not come about. Said method and apparatus are based on the above-mentioned concepts, and in particular on the parcels being accompanied in the upper part jointly with their advancement by predefined lengths, and on the accompaniment means being adjusted in their height according to the height of the rows of parcels.
The features and advantages of the present invention will appear more clearly from the following detailed description concerning both the method and the apparatus, taken together with the attached drawings, in which: